The Cleveland Browns Have Not Been Good at Drafting in Recent Years, Plain Dealer Determines

So, the Cleveland Plain Dealer decided to pile on with their draft preview edition. According to the Plain Dealer, the Patriots have drafted the most all-pros and the Browns the least.

Of course, I completely disagree with what they did, though I’m not sure it ultimately matters. Apparently, the Plain Dealer found all all-pros who were selected since 2002, and then found what team originally drafted them. The Patriots get credit for Rich Gannon as a result. That doesn’t make sense to me, at least if we are trying to compare the Patriots to the Browns, who became (yeah, I know, officially they returned as) a franchise in 1999.

I also can’t get the numbers to match up – so they must also be using second team all-pros as well. Two hundred and thirty-two different players would be way too many for the number of different 1st team all pros over the last decade.

So as a counter, I checked the first team all pros drafted by each team since 1999, when Cleveland “returned.” New England does rank #1 still, at eight, if we include kicker Stephen Gostkowski, just ahead of Baltimore and San Diego. Cleveland, who has Joe Thomas as the only 1st team all pro selection that has been drafted since 1999, isn’t last, though. Three other teams join them with just one.

Below the Browns, there’s Buffalo and Tampa Bay, neither of whom have drafted a 1st team all pro since 1999.

[photo via US Presswire]